The History of the Japonic Languages

The Japonic languages are a language family comprising Japanese, Ryukyuan, and a possible extinct Continental branch. Learn about two competing hypotheses regarding the origin and dispersal of this language family in this video.

ACADEMIC SOURCES:

[TheDragonHistorian]

According to Pellard (2015), Ryukyuan and Japanese split in the 1st century near the end of the Yayoi period, and Ryukyuan did not start settling the Ryukyu Islands until the 10th century, with some Ryukyuan speakers remaining in Kyushu up until the 12th century. Please keep that in mind as this hypothesis is not included in the video.

펠러드 (2015)에 의하면 류큐어군과 일본어군은 야요이 시대 말미 1세기 무렵에 갈라졌고, 류큐어는 10세기에야 류큐 열도에 진입하기 시작했다고 합니다. 또한 12세기까지도 류큐어 화자들이 규슈 남부에 잔류했다는 주장입니다. 본 영상에는 포함되지 않은 가설이니 참고해주시기 바랍니다.

[tranchedecake]

Finally a language mapper who takes into account more than one theory and explains the debate around the origins of these peoples.

+1 sub

[vtron]

Thank you for presenting two diverging theories side by side.

[limeliciousmapping]

I always love learning about this prehistoric stuff, there's just so much to be uncovered, or to be never uncovered

[MarkRosa]

What a great video! As we say in the very far southwest corner of the map, "arāgu fugarasā!"
As a scholar of the languages of Yonaguni and the Yaeyama islands, I've had the pleasure of meeting all three of the authors whose works are used as the basis for this video, and have enjoyed reading all their work.
If I may make one criticism: the Okinawan islands should be shown in an inset so that we can see when each island started speaking which language. The green and yellow areas are just too small to see.

[tommy-erhh]

Kudos on presenting 2 views! I have not see this done here before! I applaud!

[Kennyrry-deqq]

Austroasiatic and Austronesian both have the <in> and <um> infixes (as well as the prefix <pa> etc.). The presence of infixes of identical form and similar semantics was one of the main arguments for the Austric hypothesis. In fact, I know of Filipinos who can understand words in Khmer with these affixes if they know the root words' meaning. Such a feature seems to be indicative of a common ancestor rather than borrowing especially for the infixes which are rare in linguistics.

[kennethk]

Vovin's theory makes more sense, Robetees theory is still largely based on beckwith's theory which has been rejected by many linguists.

[paulstackery]

Both match the adh1b gene distribution (rs1229984 exactly and also rs3811801). And also places where raw fish was/is eaten. Kuahuqiao and Shangshan are ancient Austronesian (Kra-Dai relation) cultures whose artifacts had suns on them which might indicate sun worship. They were the first to cultivate rice and so maybe it could've been related to a harvest ritual idk

[Shunshnura]

Wow, I absolutely loved this!
Your style is honestly one of the best ones I've seen. It's so soothing and comfortable to look at. You're definitely an extremely underrated mapper in my opinion, you deserve so much more attention for your great work!

Keep it coming, looking forwards to what you have in store next! :D

[deacudaniel]

Wow! What a splendid masterpiece! Now I'm so hyped for your next language videos!

[worldpoint]

Congratulations on your 100th video! And its astonishing how you depicted the history of the same thing by 2 different theories. Mindblowing!

[itsjohnnyfox]

Awesome video! Can't wait for other language stuff!

[jnxlwcf]

정말 영상의 퀄리티에 한번 놀라고, 또 전에는 알지 못했던 학설들과 가설들을 알게 되어 저는 너무 행복합니다

[jin..]

역사룡님께선 로비츠의 가설을 지지하지 않는다고 하셨죠. 그럼에도 시청자들의 요구와 편의를 위해 자신이 지지하지 않는 가설까지 함께 다루며 비교하는 영상을 제작하신 것 정말 대단하십니다 ㅎㅎ

[JasonWhite-gsqq]

I really appreciate that the creator included lesser known theories but not his execution. Like why pick and choose, and exclude. Why make it either-or instead of presenting both or all sides?

[ethans.]

There is a very strong presence of the D haplogroup on the Japanese islands (especially with the Ainus of Hokkaido) maybe this show that the Whitman and Vovin hypothesis is more plausible as it shows that Proto-japanase originated in central China near Tibet, and today we know that Tibet with Japan have are the places where the Haplogroup D is the most common in Asia.

Anyway I love this chanel, it's incredibly detailed and very well done, keep it up !!

[sunduncan]

It’s hard to confirm where Japonic languages is originated. Japonic languages show multiple layers of vocabulary sharing with Ainu, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic, Old Chinese, Kra-Dai, Austroasiatic and Austronesian. I have records of possible cognates. I’ve read some Vovin’s works that pointed out the origin of Japonic in southern China which is close to Austroasiatic and Kra-Dai origins. Vovin listed various Japonic roots which possibly related to Kra-Dai and he believe that Japonic might have been monosyllabic, isolating language and have SVO syntax.
Examples of Japonic monosyllabic words in Vovin’s work:
leaf *pa (Tai *ʔbaï)
side *pia (Tai * ʔbïaŋ)
wife *mia (Tai *mia)
long *nan-ka (Tai *na:n)
mountain *wo (Tai *buo)
house *ya (Tai *ʔjau)
door *to (Tai *tu)
inside *na-ka (Tai *naï)

[michaeltheboombringer]

One glaring error: There is not a single author who believes the Ryukyuan languages originated in Ryukyu. Internal reconstruction, archaeology and heavy borrowing of Sino-Japanese terms in the 9th century suggest it split off from Mainland Japanese as late as the 6th century, and only settled the Ryukyu Archipelago around the 10th century. See for instance: Thomas Pellard. 2015. The linguistic archeology of the Ryukyu Islands. Sven Osterkamp. 2018. A mokkan Perspective on Some Issues in Japanese
Historical Phonology (for the dating of *e to *i and *o to *u vowel raising)

[cudanmang_theog]

Maybe this video tries to convince a proto-Yangtse with Japese . By linking outdated knowledge, he said Austroasiatic homeland is Yangtse river in previous video about SEA. Actually Austroasiatic homeland is much further west, in the Upper Mekong, North India, Tibetan Plateau, Northern Myanmar. So if a proto-Yangtse-Japonic possibly, it should be Austro-Tai along the coast.